2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
Trafalgar Studios, LondonHarold Pinter was, among many other things, a comic writer; and I would distrust any Pinter evening that didn't make us laugh. But, richly pleasurable and boundlessl…
Tricycle, LondonLeanne Best received glowing notices when she first appeared in Frank McGuinness's demanding one-woman play, at the Liverpool Playhouse in June 2012. The praise was richly de…
Arcola, LondonWhy do we know so little of Alexander Ostrovsky? He was the father of Russian drama and a palpable influence on Anton Chekhov, yet his plays get only scattered revivals. So, ev…
Duke of York's, LondonIt's a well-known fact that Peter Nichols's play, which first appeared in 1981, forms part of an unofficial trinity of dramas about infidelity: it came after Pinter's B…
The Cut, HalesworthQuirky, original voices are rare in a conformist age. But Thomas Eccleshare, whose Pastoral is one of five new plays at the core of this year's HighTide festival in the Su…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonI've seen Prospero played as a benign schoolmaster, colonial overlord and Faustian necromancer. But Roger Allam brings something new to the party by suggesting tha…
Soho Upstairs, LondonI first came across Cat Jones's 60-minute play when it was submitted for one of the playwrights' bursaries annually awarded by Pearson. I'm happy to say that this story …
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Barbican, LondonTheatre-makers are constantly trying to recapture the shock of August Strindberg's once-revolutionary 1888 play. In Mies Julie, currently at the Riverside Studios, it is done…
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Minerva, ChichesterWith the Festival theatre closed for renovation and Chichester resembling a building site, it seems appropriate to kick off the season in the Minerva with a piec…
This year's Tony nominations presage a battle of heavyweight musicals. However, theatre does exist beyond the big-ticket song-and-dance showsTwo heavyweight musicals are engaged in a slugfes…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonWhy, 16 years after its premiere, does Conor McPherson's play still grip us? After all, it seems to consist of little but people telling ghost stories in a …
Tabard, LondonHave we lost our taste for historical melodrama? Apparently not, since this Chiswick theatre pub was packed on a hot afternoon for a rare revival of this curious play by Patric…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon"Can one desire too much of a good thing?" asks Rosalind. Maybe not. But, although Maria Aberg's new production of As You Like It is a joyous, b…
Orange Tree, LondonFantasies of flight fuelled the life and work of Somerset Maugham. They are also the governing theme of this compellingly cruel 1930 comedy, which forms a fascinating comp…
Olivier, LondonTo call this production eagerly awaited would be an understatement. Ever since Adrian Lester gave us a taste of the Moor, when playing the 19th-century American actor Ira Aldr…
Belgrade, CoventryChekhov's Platonov, written when he was 20, is an untidy beast that several writers, including Michael Frayn and David Hare, have successfully tamed. But this new version, …
Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonPlays, like musicals, often depend on a moment of ecstasy. One occurs at the end of Tanika Gupta's drama, when Abdul Karim, the aged Queen Victoria's Hindi teacher, …
Hampstead Theatre, LondonHoward Brenton's most recent play, 55 Days, dealt with the imprisonment, trial and execution of Charles I. His new one could easily be called 81 Days since it cover…
Lyttelton, LondonMaxim Gorky takes up where Anton Chekhov leaves off. Written in 1905, shortly after what would become known as Bloody Sunday, when peaceful protesters were shot down by…
Jermyn Street, LondonI suspect this 1927 comedy by Frederick Lonsdale had its influence on Noël Coward's Private Lives: the clipped dialogue, the dance for two couples and the tiptoeing e…
The Shed, LondonDurable tables emerge from workshops. So too does Tanya Ronder's ambitious new play, which spans six generations of a single family and opens the National's inviting new temp…
Barbican, LondonHow do you recapture the shock impact of Alfred Jarry's 1896 play, with its savage portrait of a grotesque monster? Given that Jarry's play started as a schoolboy prank aimed…
In 10 years, Hytner has given the National a sense of purpose, large new audiences and great drama. Who can succeed him?It's no great surprise to learn that Nicholas Hytner will be leaving t…
